Cash for contraception will keep family sizes falling

Spending on family planning programmes must double in the next nine years, or by 2025 the world will be unable to support its population. If world population is to grow no faster than the UN's projected 'medium' rate, from 5.4 billion this year to 8.5 billion in 2025, $9 billion will have to be spent on contraception in the non-industrialised Third World, says the UN population fund (UNFPA) in its annual report published this week.

These countries now spend $3.5 billion a year on contraception - more than two-thirds of the total worldwide. Foreign aid provides just $675 million, according to the UNFPA, and must increase to $4.5 billion by the year 2000. 'This would represent less than a penny a day for each Western taxpayer,' says Malcolm Potts, of the Margaret Pyke Centre in London.

The UNFPA's target is to reduce the average number of children a woman has ...

To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.

To continue reading this article, log in or subscribe to New Scientist

App + web

Web

Smartphone

Tablet

$25.99 - Save 65%

12 issues for $2.17 per issue

with continuous service

Print + web

Print

Web

$28.99 - Save 61%

12 issues for $2.42 per issue

with continuous service

Print + app + web

Print

Web

Smartphone

Tablet

$39.99 - Save 73%

12 issues for $3.33 per issue

with continuous service

Web

Web only

$49.99

30 day web pass

Prices may vary according to delivery country and associated local taxes.